Supporting Accountants in Business

This self-assessment evaluation tool is available for professional accountancy organizations (PAOs) to help take a strategic and practical approach to enhancing relevance for professional accountants in business (PAIB).

Many PAOs struggle to engage and support their members who are professional accountants in business. It is particularly challenging when these constituents are not part of the organization’s governance, strategy and decision-making structure, and can be further exacerbated by geographic dispersion and varied work settings.
 
The self-assessment is designed to help PAOs identify where to develop capacity in those aspects of governance, strategy, planning, and member and stakeholder engagement that can lead to growth in activities and services valued by members working in business.

A richer and more diverse local, regional and global profession is better positioned to drive public interest outcomes, including strong and sustainable organizations, financial markets, and economies. Strengthening relevance and engagement with accountants in business also helps expand a PAO’s reach, influence, and contribution to its members and wider society.

The self-assessment tool builds on IFAC’s 2016 Capacity Building publication on Engaging Professional Accountants in Business: How to Build a More Relevant PAO and Profession, which provides guidance on incorporating accountants in business into a PAO’s governance. It also complements the PAO Capacity Building Framework, which identifies nine key responsibilities for a PAO to optimize its success in serving both the public and private sectors.

The Approach Explained

A series of questions cover four (4) key enablers for PAOs to more effectively enhance service delivery for their PAIB membership:

• Governance and strategy (8 questions)
• Capacity and people (6 questions)
• Knowledge and education (5 questions)
• Member and stakeholder engagement (5 questions).

The scorecard approach allows PAOs to self-assess relevance and maturity on a 1-4 scale in their engagement with accountants in business. An action tracker helps document follow-up strategies and actions in response to areas that require further development.